Static Wind
by ShadowPhantom14
Summary: "But you didn't. Because you couldn't. Because you're pathetic. Ya know what, I'll take ya back to the beginning. I'll show ya why it happened. Then maybe you'll see the truth. You're no hero after all."
1. Brink of Memories -Prologue-

**"Okay, for the life of me I just can't remember the word. Help me out here man."**

"What word?"

**"There's a word that fits ya to a T. Perfect description. I wanna be able to tell ya but I'm having a bit of memory loss here. Toss me some suggestions."**

"Uh, kay. Weird, but kay. I got this. Lemme see, what do the others call me... Brave, heroic, caring, thoughtful,"

**"No no. Not any of those. Oh! That's it! I remember now! Pathetic."**

"What?!"

**"Pathetic. What else would ya call someone who's fallen so far?"**

"All right now I'm even more confused. I haven't fallen, whatever ya mean by that. And I'm not pathetic!"

**"Oh. Ahahahaha! That's rich, dude! We both know that's a lie. A hero who can't save the day isn't a hero at all. You were wondering all this time why they haven't come to rescue you. Ever realized why? If you couldn't save them, why would they ever bother saving you? I'll say again. Pathetic."**

"No. That's not true. I tried my best and that's all anyone can do. And they're my friends. They'll come for me eventually. I'd do the same for them."

**"But you didn't. Because you couldn't. Because you're pathetic. Ya know what, I'll take ya back to the beginning. I'll show ya why it happened. Then maybe you'll see the truth. You're no hero after all."**

* * *

It was a weird dream and that's putting it lightly. Well, what little I can remember was weird. It faded kinda quick. Eh, oh well. Time to move on. Let's see, oh crap I was supposed to meet Tails in the workshop an hour ago! Stupid alarm clock letting me oversleep.

I'm down there in a flash. Single staircase plus superspeed equals less than a minute eta. See? Math isn't that hard. "Yo Tails! Ya in here?"

The kid steps out from behind my biplane and pulls his goggles onto his forehead. "I see you've finally awoken. What happened? I set your alarm for you last night. How can you sleep through something that loud?"

I shrug. Obviously wasn't loud enough if it didn't get me up.

He sighs that little 'I'm annoyed but not enough to be angry' sigh that I've come to know and love, then gestures with a wrench toward the Tornado II. "If you'd gotten up on time we might've finished the repairs by now, but as it is the left wing is still a wreck."

I glance over at the damage. Yeesh. Egghead's ships can sure pack a punch when he actually tries. "Ah, no worries. We'll get it fixed before the day's out." I zip over and inspect it personally. Well, this plane's been through worse and made it out okay. 'Okay' meaning not a complete and total un-savable wreck, but you take what you get. It's not too bad this time.

I catch Tails smiling and putting his goggles back on. Well, time to get to work.

* * *

"Is that you?"

"Is what me?"

"I keep hearing a voice. Oh, no wonder. I think I sat on the tv remote."

We both pause as he grabs the remote and tries to turn the tv off from across the room. No luck. That thing's always hated us though. He has to walk over to it, but when he does he stops, which sends me following after. I mean, you don't just freeze nearly midstep for something so mundane.

He points to the tv. A newscast is on, and Egghead's the star of the show. "Seriously? He tries again so soon? Doesn't he know he's just gonna get his but handed to him again?"

I have to laugh at that. "Yeah well I say we teach him. Obviously hasn't learned it yet."

The plane may be out of commission for now but transport by foot happens to be my specialty.

* * *

Figures he'd attack a city. More people to hold hostage until I showed. I send Tails ahead to check on Amy while I taunt Eggy. She lives here after all. Yeah she's annoying sometimes but she's a friend and I don't want her hurt again. So while he's making sure she's safe, or at least not attempting a solo butt-kicking, I'm heading to the doc's ship.

Someone calls my name and I skid to a halt. Not a voice I recognize. The person steps out from behind a lamppost. A young lady. White hedgehog. Seems afraid. "You're Sonic, right?"

I nod. "Yeah, that's me! Listen, I gotta go take care of a mad scientist, so I don't really have time to chat. I'll meet ya back here when I'm done." Fans are cool and all but I got somewhere to be right now. I start to leave again but she grabs my hand.

"I advise you be careful."

"I always am, no worries. Look I really gotta go. Promise I'll be back to chat with ya though, kay?"

She doesn't respond except to let go of my hand. I speed off down the road. Ship's within a few blocks. Only takes a few seconds to get underneath, then it's up the side of the building and jump. Easy. Now where's the bridge on this thing?

Oh, there it is. Quick run, a knock on the window. Honestly, after all these years I can read Egghead like a book. He's angry about me showing up, but at the same time I know he's glad I did. It's like a game, the two of us. He hates my guts but I also entertain him. Vice versa goes too.

And there's Tails. With Amy. Figures. I make a face at Eggy and get a robot after me in return. Okay, off the ship now.

I can't tell if it was the jump from at least five stories up, but I'm not feeling so good anymore. I stumble. I can see more robots pouring from the ship, but none are a big deal. Tails and Amy are beating them down like nobody's business.

My stumble costs me my balance and a bot catches me off guard. I'm punched through a window. Glass hurts when you shatter it by flying through it. Just thought I'd get that out there. Aw crap. The noise must've gotten Amy's attention. I can see her sprinting after the bot that hit me. Tails rushes in to help me up, which is nice but he shouldn't of left the street undefended.

Wait, scratch that. Amy is a force to be reckoned with.

Sometimes. This bot sends her flying too, and right into me and Tails. We're all knocked into a display stand. Guess it was a department store I got thrown into.

It's a display stand of flatscreen tvs. Tails and Amy's combined weight cracks the one they hit.

Mine doesn't crack.

It ripples.

I fall in.


	2. Backside of the TV

It's foggy.

That's not the first thing he notices upon opening his eyes, but it's a prominent factor for his first realization; this isn't the department store. He sits up and replays the scene in his head. The robot had packed way more of a punch than he'd realized, and he'd been off-balance to boot. Amy and Tails had come to the rescue, and bam, they'd been thrown into a shelf of televisions.

Had he hit his head on one? Crashed into it too hard? Got a concussion? It's beginning to seem like that's kind of the only explanation here. This place can't be real. An empty road stretches into the horizon, which is an ominous sky of jagged black and red stripes. He decides to ignore the weird scenery and try to wake himself up. Because really? He has to have passed out. This place is one heck of a wacky dream, but a hero isn't allowed to fall unconscious in the middle of a battle! He's got a city to save!

Well actually the thought of that city brings to mind the department store, and he hopes the collective crash didn't cause too much damage. Most officials were willing to write off property damage from his battles with Egghead, but Tails had been trying to drill into him that just because they are isn't a reason to brush off what you break in a fight.

And on the thought of the tvs, it hits him.

He hadn't hit the tv. His friends had. He's heard the crack of their weight against the screen. A single short sound. A second before his. Or, a second before his lack of sound. He hadn't broken the screen. It had felt like water. Like being plunged into a lake.

He shudders at the memory of the sensation. He's always hated water. Too open. Too deep. Darkness and choking and you're miles out with no rescue in sight and the surface is getting farther and farther away and you can see your air escaping you and-

He hates water. That's what it felt like. But a tv screen made of water? And he'd gone through it into this fever dream of a place? Nothing makes sense. Well, wherever he is, however he got here, he makes sure only one thought is on his mind. Getting out.

His friends need him right now. Yeah, Amy is a powerhouse when she needs to be, and Tails certainly knows how to evade, but if that one single robot could send all three of them flying through a window and into a shelf hard enough to knock it all over, and do so after being hit by Amy's enormous hammer, then teamwork would be a necessity. More than one of those bots had been let loose.

He needs to get back.

He needs to leave here.

Wherever here is...

Well, there's an out to every bad situation, right? He's never made it anywhere by being a pessimist after all. If he fell through some weird portal, then he can get out through that weird portal. Problem now is finding it. The landscape blurs as he runs, kicking up dust behind him.

A quick run-through of the immediate area reveals no way out. Which is weird because that's where he'd landed. Apparently the portal had closed up. Okay... Not a problem! He'll find another one! Again the landscape blurs around him as he takes off on another search.

The fog thickens.

The red and black sky shows no sign of time passing.

He skids to a halt and sits down. He has to have traveled miles by now. Still no sign of a tv or weird portal anywhere. No sign of anything anywhere except that creepy sky and fog. Even the ground is obscured now. It's like he's sitting on air. This is crazy. What kind of place had he been transported to? What kind of world is full of empty roads and endless rolling fog? Even the roads aren't quite roads. They have no markings. It's more like pavement with no end in sight.

How long has he been searching for the exit? Can't have been more than an hour or so. It doesn't feel any longer. Yeesh, he hopes Tails and Amy are okay. They're probably worried. He promises himself to take Amy out when he gets back, and buy Tails an ice cream. He's going to owe them for the panic he's sure to have put them through with this.

Resolve renewed, he gets back up and runs again. There has to be an exit here somewhere. Somehow. He's getting out of here no matter what.

.

.

.

.

There's no way to tell how long he's been here. It feels like days. He'll definitely owe them.

.

.

.

.  
Far too much time has passed. He can't tell how much but he knows it's been too long.

.

.

.

.  
Oh, yeah, he's supposed to be looking for an exit isn't he? He's almost given up hope.

.

.

.

.  
He doesn't remember when, but he eventually came to terms with it. He's never leaving this place. He doesn't blame his friends. He's sure they tried. Maybe they're still trying. He just knows that at some point he gave up. No, that's the wrong word. Sonic the Hedgehog never gives up.

No, it was at some unidentifiable point in time, some moment during his stay in this place, that he realized. He didn't give up, he just understood that the chance of finding the exit is so slim it might as well not exist.

Normally he would fight for that slim chance. Normally odds like that don't bother him, because even such a small chance is still a chance. But here and now? Being alone for so long can do things to a psyche. He tells himself he hasn't given up, but what he has done is practically the textbook definition of it.

It was then he also realized something else.

This world isn't empty after all.

* * *

He almost thinks he's dreaming when he hears the voices. Just barely audible, coming from somewhere in the distance.

He hears them on two different occasions.

Both times he chases after.

_"I should have known better. But then, I already knew that too." | "This isn't what I wanted. I always hated this job."_

_"That's what happens when you're desperate for an out." | "He just couldn't take a hint, could he?"_

Both times he's too late. Whoever was speaking is gone by the time he arrives. Even at the speed of sound, this world is large and he still gets lost on the way there. Part of him is screaming that he's failed even more people. That because he took so long to get there the shadows got to them. That's why he doesn't hear them ever again.

Another part of him is denying it. Saying no, he can't possibly have failed, he's a hero. He was just imagining the voices. There never was anyone else here in the fog.

The two locations are unfamiliar, and he doesn't know if they appeared recently or if they've been here all along. You can't exactly memorize the layout of a place like this. The first one he comes across is a room. It exudes a creepy air in a way that he can't quite describe. Maybe it's the aging wallpaper and torn posters. Maybe it's the chaotic color scheme. Or, you know, it could be the empty chair underneath the noose.

Footsteps quicken as he leaves, eager to get out and back into the fog. Said fog isn't much of a problem anymore. He really doesn't know how long he's been in here, but it's been long enough to learn a few things about the place.

For starters, the fog reacts to chaos energy. It becomes transparent around it. This observation was enough to get the ball rolling on some energy manipulation practice. He'd done it before with a fake emerald, which judging by Shadow's reaction at the time was supposed to be impossible. He's powerful. And now he has the chance to practice. He can easily see through the fog now at all times.

The second location is a street. Devoid of life but the buildings are still there. It looks like it was abandoned years ago and left to crumble. The few signs prove it's meant to be a street of shops. He doesn't know what drove the people to leave it. If there were people ever there to begin with. The street doesn't connect to a town at all. It's like it was ripped from its home and stuck here. It reminds him of his adventure with the Time Eater. Oh, there's the homesick feeling again.

The second thing he's learned is about the creatures that inhabit this world. He calls them shadows because they behave like shadows. At least, they do until you provoke them. Then they take on a new form and attack. Most haven't been a problem for him. Some are weak against physical blows, and some against chaos energy. The latter seem to run a spectrum of different energy types for weaknesses, but he's not Shadow. He's not skilled enough to be able to sense the differences.

The shadows also seem to get more violent when the fog periodically clears.

It's one of these times that again, he's not sure if he's dreaming. There are voices in the distance.

"Great, now my ass hurts."  
"We've got more important problems."  
"Yeah... Did we just... We're _inside_ the tv?"  
"Dude, what the hell?!"

Three voices. Two guys and a girl. If he is imagining them again, well, at least he'll have gotten some running in today. If not, then he won't fail again. This might be a way out. They had mentioned a tv. He breaks out into a sprint, but the second the sky begins to blur, there's a short boom and all sounds begin to fade. He cuts his pace to below the sound barrier so he can chase the voices.

Another location is coming into view. One of the few landmarks in this barren landscape. It's the creepy room with the noose. He'd rather avoid it. Thankfully the voices seem to be coming from just beyond it. The third landmark he'd never payed much attention to. It looks like a studio, what with the cameras pointed at the floor from all angles. The floor is decorated with fake murder-scene tape. At least, every fiber of his being hopes it's fake.

He skids to a halt inside the creepy room, just down the path to the studio. Three humans. He isn't imagining the voices. Two boys and a girl, like he'd heard. All of them teenagers. Instinct screams to get his butt over there and ask them for help. How they got here, if they can get back out, anything like that.

The better part of him knows from their comments that they're scared. They don't know where they are, and it's frightening. He knows the feeling. It was his feeling for a long time. He hangs back out of sight to give them a little time to adjust. He can't hang back for long though, or the shadows will attack. The fog is thin today. That and he really doesn't like hanging out in this room.

He can hear their conversation through the wall.

"This can't be real. This just, okay someone pinch me. I wanna wake up no-OW!"  
"Does this prove you're awake?"  
"How can you be so calm about this?!"  
"Panicking won't help."  
"He's right. Let's just find an exit, okay? There has to be one somewhere."  
"Man, that means looking around. I don't like this place."  
"Well neither do I! But if we don't look around we won't find a way back."  
"Right. Let's search the immediate area."

Oh boy.


End file.
